CH 186

/The Moonlight of Artemis!/

A soft but clear silver light spread around the dark surroundings like a wave. The Infected, which were leaning against the vast outer wall, started screaming as soon as the light touched them. “Kyak!”

“Ack!”

As the light magic, based on divine magic, spread in all directions, the nearby walking corpses began to disintegrate while screaming bloody murder. Though, it was obvious that they were already dead. As the soul, which moved the physical body, was extinguished by the light magic, the body changed from one that moved with purpose and intent into a simple physical form without any direction.

“W-what?!”

“Emergency!”

As they were surprised by the intense spiritual vibrations and screams, the gathered survivors began to run everywhere. There were nearly thousands of survivors in the area, but Merlin didn’t care about their reaction. After all, they were not his main focus right now.

“Go.”

/The Moonlight of Artemis!/

Two moons rose in the night sky. As the bodies of the corpses slammed into the high and sturdy wall after being exposed to Merlin’s powerful divine magic, they began to burn.

“Hmm… if I had made a few more of these magic crystals, it could have revealed the most efficient result.”

Though he had only used two magic attacks, the effect was enormous. Tens of thousands of Infected were incinerated. Of course, they weren’t entirely eradicated, so many of the injured corpses were getting up again. Still, they couldn’t avoid taking any damage, resulting in them stumbling across the ground, unable to stand properly.

Creek! Boom! Creek! Boom!

Merlin climbed atop the roof railing and fired a streak of arrows before the spell had even ended. He didn’t have much time. His [Intuition] was telling him that he should defeat at least one more enemy while he still had the chance.

“W-what is that? How are his arrows able to fly in a straight line and pierce them from so far?”

“Damn, he’s sweeping away the zombies!”

Dozens of people on the roof shouted in disbelief, but Merlin didn’t pay them any attention. In the end, they’d only meet on this mission, so he’d probably never see them again. Hence, Merlin decided that he didn’t need to be friendly with these people; he just had to do what it took to accomplish the mission.

Creek! Bang!

A roar rang out. When the Infected had recovered to some extent and started gathering around the wall again, Merlin moved to shoot his enchanted short spears. When the spears landed and embedded themselves in the ground, they started emitting red-colored lightning, and after one second, dozens of Infected were swept away.

“Wow, this is unbelievable! If things continue like this, he’ll kill all the zombies in the area by the evening!”

“But who the hell is that guy? Besides, what’s with that red cape and the big hat? Is he doing some sort of cosplay?”

As the people shouted their comments and exclaimed in surprise, Merlin maintained his fighting pace. At this rate, he could kill all the Infected within two to three hours. After all, he had many arrows and enchanted short spears with recall magic placed on them, so as long as he had the strength to draw back his Decian Bow, he could massacre the enemies.

Alas, ten minutes passed by in an instant.

“Sheesh. It’s already time.”

“Huh?”

The girl standing behind Merlin made a puzzled expression as if she didn’t understand what he was saying. What was it time for? However, at that moment, the countdown timer in the quest window hit zero.

Ting.

To be precise, there wasn’t an actual sound. Yet, even so, Merlin felt a noise that made his head pound. An indescribable spiritual shock engulfed him from every direction.

“Ugh! T-this… was this what you were referring to?!”

“Damn it! Why did this appear again?!”

Even those with weak spiritual powers screamed as if they felt the vibration. Soon, their voices were filled with fear, as if they had experienced the wave before.

“Are people going to turn into zombies again? There were already few survivors from the start!”

“Everyone, go inside the building! It’ll be troublesome if you stick together and the person next to you turns into a zombie!”

After listening to those around him, Merlin realized that they were referring to the initial X-Belt wave, the first wave of infections. Many people had been living ordinary lives when they suddenly became Infected and attacked anyone nearby. So, after that experience, people were more cognizant this time around. However, if a difference between zombie movies and the current scene had to be pointed out, it was that the ‘zombies’ were the weakest variant of the Union’s enemies, the Infected Grotesque.

‘A spiritual command with coercive power… that’s what the X-Belt is. I guess this was the second wave?’

The spiritual wave swept through the surroundings in an instant. It didn’t hit a certain area; it affected the entire planet like a solar wind.

“Follow us! We… are… great!”

‘Hmm, this….’

Naturally, the coercive order contained within the wave didn’t work on Merlin due to his robust spiritual defenses. He wouldn’t easily succumb and be affected by such a wide-range interference-type attack.

Furthermore, when it came to one’s mind and psyche, users were protected by a powerful barrier that even the gods recognized, commonly called the Marduk System. As such, users wouldn’t be affected by this level of mental attack, even beginners at Level 1 or 2. In Merlin’s case, his magic resistance stats were sufficient to easily deflect any negative effects.

“Ack. Ugh. D-damn it. It’s over. I never expected this to happen again.”

And it wasn’t just users who were able to endure the wave. In fact, the first girl Merlin met also avoided the aftereffects, and the rest of the surviving humans managed to hold on as well.

‘Does this mean that those who resisted the effects of the initial X-Belt will be able to do so for future waves?’

The X-Belt, or Black Wind, was a kind of erosion-based attack that could be withstood if someone had a counter DNA strand, strong willpower, or spiritual resistance. In theory, it was normal to survive the second wave after an individual had made it through the first one.

“Damn it! We’re done for… ack?!”

“N-no… Kyak!”

However, not everything followed theoretical expectations. Many who had resisted the X-Belt were weakened from fighting the Infected for an extensive period, gradually getting tired and reaching their limits. At that moment, a new text appeared in Merlin’s mind.

/Infection rate is 27 percent! Of the 174,890 survivors, 47,220 have been infected!/ 

/The Infected from the initial wave have been exposed to another X-Belt! Infected are strengthened from Stage 1 to Stage 2!/ 

/Two hundred thirty-seven hours 23 minutes and 45 seconds until the arrival of the third X-Belt wave!/

“Damn it! Kyungwon has changed and turned into one of them!”

“Be careful!”

Shouts began to erupt from among the survivors, who were observing each other closely. One of the survivors’ eyes abruptly rolled back as they began to attack the others.

“Stop.”

Yet, just then, Merlin moved without any sound or forewarning and grabbed the Infected’s head. The Infected tried to resist by swinging his arms with incredible force, but with a thumping sound, the Infected’s body suddenly trembled and grew limp.

“Burn, Blue Spirit Flames.”

Whoosh!

As Quiet Heaven perched on Merlin’s shoulder, its eyes lit up with a blue glow, and the Infected’s body started burning. Once set on fire, the Infected seemingly lost all its strength and collapsed to the ground without dealing any damage.

“Oh, you’re not even using divine power, but you can burn the soul’s essence as if it were material. Is it based on a Dao magic principle?”

“Similar. Anyway, instead of focusing on these guys, don’t you think those monsters over there will be a problem?”

Boom! Boom!

A roar rang out down below on the ground. There, a group of Infected with abnormally developed muscles were smashing the building that Merlin and the others were on. Every time the Infected slammed into the concrete wall, cracks appeared.

“W-what? The corpses have become stronger!”

“This is crazy! Our defenses are breaking!”

The survivors, having hidden inside the building to avoid the numerous Infected, screamed as they saw the second stage Infected. They were overcome with terror since they had no other escape routes, but Merlin remained expressionless.

“The Level 2-like Infected became Level 4. Are they going to give me more experience points?”

Not all of the initially Infected had evolved to the second stage. Of course, the ratio was relatively high, with around half of the initially Infected evolving. These Infected were probably the ones with above-average bodies amongst the humans that had inhabited this planet.

‘About half of the Infected evolved to the second stage. The third wave will probably evolve less than half of the second stage Infected.’

However, Quiet Heaven felt a bit wary of Merlin, who could slaughter the third stage Infected with ease. Regardless of the Infected’s numbers, Merlin wasn’t at risk, but the survivors were.

“There are a lot of them, so remain vigilant. I’ll take care of the new Infected, so you take care of the ones rushing in from the outside.”

Having said this, Quiet Heaven kicked off Merlin’s shoulder and flew into the air; Quiet Heaven’s body burned red as it started to shoot flame arrows here and there. The flame arrows accurately hit the new Infected among the gathered survivors. Since the newly infected were only in the first stage, Quiet Heaven could easily handle many of them.

Creek!

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Merlin drew back his bow. The number of enemies in front of him was seemingly uncountable.

“This is just basic grinding,” Merlin murmured as he released his bowstring.

***

Clang!

As two blade strikes flashed, the Infected that were jumping in to break the door were torn to shreds. The Dual Sword-Wielding Master, Ohje, took a breath and looked back. Behind him, Scorpion, a dark magic user, was looking at his Beholder.

“Hey, how much time do we have left?”

“It’s almost over. You alright?”

“I feel like I’m going to die!”

Ohje yelled in a thoroughly exhausted voice, but his movements were still swift. This was from the powerful internal energy circulating throughout his body, helping him regain his energy. Adol was in the same situation, and he was a bit tired. Luckily, he hadn’t taken any major wounds.

“W-who the hell are you people?”

“Hey, why are you asking so many questions?”

Hanma grumbled as he brushed off the flesh of the Infected from his fists. After removing the Infected from the crowd of survivors, the party directed the survivors into an underground bunker; however, the party couldn’t stop those who wanted to help defend from coming out.

Undoubtedly, the dozen people who came aboveground couldn’t do anything. They were quite strong, but the users who traveled to the planet Ayan were literally monsters that were more powerful than modern weapons- no, futuristic weapons of mass destruction.

“How could we… not wonder? We do not know your identity, affiliation, or purpose for being here.”

“Don’t think too much. We’re just beings who don’t want the human race here to perish.”

Hanma made a fatigued expression, but he still had a friendly attitude. Since users have the [Good Deed] stat, they couldn’t act however they wished unless their opponent attacked them first. Actually, if a user helped those in the mission and accumulated Karma points, they could receive various bonuses, so Hanma tried to be as friendly and accommodating as he could.

“Still, are you okay? To crush enemies with your bare hands… If you get hurt by the zombies, you’ll be infected by them.”

“Hahaha. Don’t worry. In the first place, these guys….”

“Growl!”

At that moment, a second stage Infected jumped over the building and attacked the party. The Infected had a massive, deformed head, and it bit Hanma’s side with its huge mouth.

Kik! Kik!

However, its sharp teeth couldn’t penetrate Hanma’s skin. The Infected slid off Hanma’s side while a noise akin to someone scratching a steel plate with a nail sounded out.

“… They can’t hurt me!”